In a game like this, there's not much prestige in bragging rights. You're far better off showing how high a score you can rack up in Batman or something, if you're really that good at fighting games. Just sayin'.

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it shows how easy and linear the game really is under the surface. the yellow side missions are not worth doing. the girlfriends unlock health shrines, lock box and jade statues on your map which are all useless in the end because the game is too easy. you can race but it never yields big money.

most open world games have a meta layer to them like a mini-game with depth. for example Scarface has drugs, Godfather has extortion, Assassins Creed has recruitment and tower defense, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has Turf Wars, Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars has drugs, Saint's Row: The Third has Turf Wars.

Just saying mentioning it by itself as you did above is too vague to be known as a game critique vs bragging.

Now that you clarified though, I agree, it's a bit easy regarding fighting and even easier regarding gunplay. It was advertised as more of a GTA style cinematic experience than full on fight game though, so it's not surprising it has one fairly easy difficulty level like GTA, vs several diff levels plus an unlockable one like Batman: AC.

That said, it does have extortion, just not to the degree Godfather does. Tower defense in AC: Revelations was complained about a lot and didn't really mesh well with the rest of the combat. As a result they're omitting it in AC3. There are their own versions of turf wars present too, just not in a DIY open world way. As for SR, I can't take anything in that game seriously as ridiculous as it is.

I would call this more of a stylized, movie themed action game than a full on fleshed out sandbox fighter game, a bit like Stranglehold was, only more polished.

it has no meta game at all. the game would be better if you could extort businesses and do collections. empower the character, make it fun and rewarding for the player. you could upgrade weapons, buy new cars, clothes, homes with the money. this isn't new or unreasonable.

the game has been in development for 5 years and it shows. I thought we were past putting low resolution textures behind glass to make stores more realistic.

I'm right there with ya Bee, but keep in mind, a lot of games that have such things don't implement them very well. UF are fairly new as a team, and need time to gel well together. There were also obviously lots of bumps and grinds and a bit of a stall period when Acti lost interest. When SE took over, it took some time to retool the game.

You really need to look at the fact that when the game development started, they were under Acti's demented control. SE certainly gave them more creative control, but a lot of time and money had to be spent just polishing the game out better than what it originally was.

If SE keeps them under their wing to make a SD 2 or related game, it will likely be a lot better, more refined and fleshed out. I could see a sequel going one of two ways. Wei flees HK to the US when the Triad find out he's a cop, or turns Triad and helps them build their empire further.

I forgot to mention above that one of the easiest things about the game is getting money, including racing. I had around 2 mill when I started focusing on finishing the 2/3 of the races I'd not done last night. When I completed them and a handful of cars for Tran I had about 3 mill.

it has no meta game at all. the game would be better if you could extort businesses and do collections. empower the character, make it fun and rewarding for the player. you could upgrade weapons, buy new cars, clothes, homes with the money. this isn't new or unreasonable.

the game has been in development for 5 years and it shows. I thought we were past putting low resolution textures behind glass to make stores more realistic.

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It's not? Which other game (besides GTA) allows you to do that?

Im not trying to be a dick, I just want to know the games Ive been missing lol.

"it has no meta game at all. the game would be better if you could extort businesses and do collections. empower the character, make it fun and rewarding for the player. you could upgrade weapons, buy new cars, clothes, homes with the money. this isn't new or unreasonable."

So my question was what games allow you to "upgrade weapons, buy new cars, clothes, homes with the money", besides GTA where you can somewhat do that?

Vice City Stories (PSP/PS2) is another I forgot. it was a new spin on San Andreas turf wars. you killed all the enemies on the property then turned the property into a business (prostitution, drugs, smuggling, loan sharking, etc).

Ah ok. Those are all GTA and I have played (the crap out of) those. I mean at the end of the day, this won't touch GTA with a 10 foot pole. But the fact that it comes close with a 20 foot pole even makes it a great game.

I beat this in 16 hours with some side missions and random kung fu attacks on street cops... I haven't played much since. GTA 4 = 150 Hours, GTA 4 Ballad of Gay Tony and Lost Souls = 200 hours, GTA San Andreas = 100+ hours - so i definitely see what you're saying.

Well I finally finished it the other night. I tried my best to stretch it out as long as I could. I was a little sorry it was over. I didn't complete everything but I was more going for the story.

I will definitely play thru it again knowing my way around the mechanics now and try to go for a more "Completionist Playthru" I did get pretty close to getting everything and I suppose I could roam around my finished game and pick up the stuff I missed(Mostly lock boxes and a couple of drug busts)
Hoping some more missions are in the cards for the DLC, something to keep it fresh.

Sorry for the double post but this is pretty relevant. Patch 1.5 is released and finally deals with the nasty mouse issues. I might start a new play thru sooner than I thought.

Sleeping Dogs – Patch 1.5 Release Notes

Stability

Improved CPU timing to reduce issues where the game plays too quickly
Various fixes to improve stability and minimize crashes during gameplay
Fixed an issue with the Bink video player which may improve stability during in-game videos such as the title screens

Controls & Camera

New option added! Aim Soft Lock: Lets the player enable or disable aiming assistance from the game
New option added! Mouse Free Look: Enables/disables camera auto-centering behind the player when using the mouse and on foot
New option added! Mouse Raw Input: When enabled, input is sampled directly from the mouse which improves responsiveness and accuracy on supported mice
New option added! Mouse Sensitivity: A modifier that determines how much speed is recorded from mouse movement
Mouse camera logic has been reworked for improved precision (independent of the raw mouse input option)
The Action Hijack binding is now independent of the Sprint/Parkour key value
While driving players can now use the mouse to look up and down
While driving the camera no longer immediately auto-centers when you stop moving the mouse
The high-speed camera shake while driving has been reduced
Mouse sensitivity no longer differs when Wei is and isn’t carrying a gun

UI

Front End screens now support a button help bar that is fully interactive via mouse
Users are now able to exit screens by pressing the Back button
Corrected all issues when exiting a screen using the Backspace and Esc keys
It’s now possible to switch sections by clicking on the corresponding icons or tab headers
The mouse wheel will scroll through all relevant lists in the user interface
Mouse hit regions have been fine-tuned throughout the front end to improve user experience

15 hours is a good length. there is just nothing to come back to. the side content doesn't sink it's hooks deep enough.

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I put 30hrs into my first play thru. I left a few little things unfinished(Drug Deals, Lock Boxes, Some Random Events)I could use my "End Game" to finish them but I will start again. The new patch fixing the wonky cameras definitely makes me want to try it again.

1. Does it say v1.3 vs v1.5 in the main menu? Mine said 1.4 when patched to 1.4, but now 1.3 when patched to 1.5
2. Is anyone else having trouble with Soft Lock staying on when you turn it off?
3. Does your Game Input say "Undefined", and not respond to attempted changes?
4. Mouse Free Look stays on for me, is that the one that disables camera centering, because it still feels slightly springy?
5. I have Raw Mouse Input on and it stays on. Does that mean mouse smoothing disabled (which is what I want)?
6. Does your Mouse Sensitivity say "Undefined", and not responsive to attempted changes?

I also read that this patch is supposed to make the game less hitchy, and I suppose maybe it does, but things are certainly still a bit strange settings wise for me. I also had the game go into windowed mode with the cutscene with Jackie just before gaining free player control after the intro, which happened when first playing the game last run before patching to 1.4.

1. Does it say v1.3 vs v1.5 in the main menu? Mine said 1.4 when patched to 1.4, but now 1.3 when patched to 1.5

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It shows version 1.5 on the screen where it says "Sleeping Dogs - Push any key or button to continue." That's after the AMD advertisement, before the autosave notification and before the main menu. If you sit at the main menu long enough, it will eventually go through all the intro videos again and show the screen with the version number again.

I also read that this patch is supposed to make the game less hitchy, and I suppose maybe it does, but things are certainly still a bit strange settings wise for me.

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I think 1.5 made huge improvements on the "hitchy" front. For example, you can now mouse look and drive in a car without the camera going psycho. It still has some consolitis in 1.5 but remarkably less.

I also had the game go into windowed mode with the cutscene with Jackie just before gaining free player control after the intro, which happened when first playing the game last run before patching to 1.4.